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Memory Boxes (3rd-5th)

I'm one of those people that collect random things in hopes that one day I may use it for an art project. Well this past week I finally did it! I got an email from another art teacher in my county a couple months ago asking if anyone wanted a bunch of small boxes; naturally I said yes. Upon receiving them, I assembled one of the boxes and began brainstorming what I could do with them. Unfortunately, I didn't come up with anything so I just put them away in my storage closet.

This past week I had to come up with an art lesson to do with my 3rd-5th graders. The way my rotation works is that I see each grade-level every day, but see the same group of kids for an entire week. So of course it just so happened that the last week of art, I got my first groups again and had nothing planned to do with them (they'd already completed all the projects my other classes had)! Lucky for me I have an astounding ability to come up with a lesson the day of (sometimes they end up being my very best).

That's where my idea for memory boxes came from. I pulled out the box of small boxes I had received and gave out one to each student (I did this with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade). First we assembled them, then began coloring them with Crayola color sticks (very similar to Prismacolor art stix - but way less expensive). These actually covered the boxes surprisingly well and best of all there was no paint clean-up! Students took about a day-a day and a half to completely color their box. Once they were finished I had them decorate their boxes anyway they wanted to with ribbons, rhinestones, sequins, and buttons. I had to help most of them hot glue something onto their box... but the students were also able to use Turbo Tacky glue to attach a lot of the decoration.

Once students were done decorating their box, I had them begin writing on strips of paper sized to perfectly fit in the box. Their task -- write one memory they shared or compliment they had for each student in their class.

I figured this would be a great (and happy) way to end the school year! And the kids LOVED it!! :)